Multi-cultural family: Ivanka Trump took to Instagram on to share an adorable video of her four-year-old daughter Arabella singing in Mandarin to celebrate the Chinese New Year (Photo: Mail Online)

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has been harsh on China during the campaign, but his daughter Ivanka Trump has been busy preparing the family business for a future relationship with China.

Trump’s granddaughter Arabella has won Chinese hearts after a video of her reciting Chinese poetry resurfaced on Chinese social media in the wake of Trump’s victory. The video, which was uploaded by Ivanka to her Instagram account in February, shows Arabella in a red dress performing Chinese songs and poems.

Out of Ivanka Trump’s 13,000-plus tweets, 19 of them use the word China or Chinese. Since 2010, Ivanka has used Twitter to wish her Chinese followers a Happy New Year almost every year. Ivanka frequently uses the opportunity to share her daughter’s interest in China and to show off her daughter’s progress in learning Chinese. Arabella has reportedly been studying Mandarin since she was 18 months old.

Ivanka made her first move to break into China’s luxury market with her jewelry boutiques, first in Hong Kong and then later in Beijing, but her real passion seems to be Trump Hotels. When Ivanka was in Hong Kong to discuss the Trump Hotels Collection’s China strategy at the 23rd annual Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific in 2012, she said that in the next 10 years Trump Hotels would be the Trump organization’s most valuable asset.

According to reports by Chinese media outlets, Trump has filed some 82 trademarks in China since 2006, two of which were filed just months before he announced his presidential campaign, and Ivanka has been trying to break into the Chinese market since at least 2010.

Obviously, the Trump family has a strong connection with and a clear focus on expanding the family business to China. So what does this all mean for China-U.S. relations?

Despite some uncertainty, China can be cautiously optimistic that Trump the president will cooperate with China for the benefit of both countries. In fact, his tune has already started to change. On November 14, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to President-elect Donald Trump in a telephone conversation. According to reports, Xi congratulated Trump on his election victory and the two discussed China-U.S. relations. Both agreed that it is important to strengthen the bilateral relationship, and Trump reportedly called China a great and important country. Interest does not necessarily translate into friendliness, but as a businessman turned president who remains committed to the future of China, perhaps Trump will take a pragmatic approach with China-U.S. relations. 

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